US STOCKS-Wall St set to open higher on Microsoft, Tesla results

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* Microsoft gains on upbeat cloud sales forecast
* Lam Research leads gains among chip stocks
* Twitter plunges on weak results
* Futures up: Dow 0.18%, S&P 500 0.20%, Nasdaq 0.58%

(Adds details; updates market action)
By Shreyashi Sanyal
Oct 24 (Reuters) - Wall Street was on course to open higher
on Thursday, as solid results from Microsoft, Lam Research and
Tesla lifted sentiment following lackluster reports from big
bellwether companies in the previous session.
Third-quarter earnings reports are center stage as investors
try to gauge the fallout from a drawn out U.S.-China trade war,
which has already shown up in the domestic economy.
But the narrative so far has been fairly upbeat, with only a
small crop of companies including industrial giant Caterpillar
CAT.N , toymaker Hasbro Inc HAS.O and chipmaker Texas
Instruments TXN.O blaming the tariff moves for denting
results.
Tech giant Microsoft Corp MSFT.O gained 1.1% premarket as
its forecast for cloud computing services surpassed analysts'
expectations. Tesla Inc TSLA.O surged 18% after a surprise
quarterly profit. Lam Research Corp LRCX.O jumped 7% after the chip gear
maker forecast strong results for the December quarter.
Semiconductor shares including those of Microchip Technology
MCHP.O , Micron MU.O and Nvidia NVDA.O looked set to
recover from a selloff in the previous session, sparked by a
revenue warning from industry proxy Texas Instruments.
But Twitter Inc TWTR.N plunged nearly 20% after the social
media platform posted worse-than-expected third quarter results.
Of the 124 S&P 500 companies that reported results up to
Wednesday, more than 82% topped earnings estimates, according to
Refinitiv data.
The S&P 500 index .SPX came within a hair's breadth of its
record high this week on upbeat corporate earnings so far and
signs of progress in resolving trade tensions between the
world's top two economies.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said on Thursday the
phase-one trade deal between Washington and Beijing would
include much of an agreement scrapped in May around intellectual
property. Market participants are keeping close tabs on the health of
the domestic economy after data earlier in October showed a
sharp contraction in manufacturing and services-sector activity
slowing to a three-year low.
Markit PMI surveys for the manufacturing and services
sectors, due 9:45 a.m. ET, will offer further clarity after a
mixed bag of business sentiment indicators from major economies
including Japan and the euro zone.
At 8:55 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 47 points, or
0.18%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 6 points, or 0.2% and
Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 45.75 points, or 0.58%.
Comcast Corp CMCSA.O and Dow Inc DOW.N gained 3% each
after the two companies exceeded profit estimates.
PayPal Holdings Inc PYPL.O jumped 8% after the payment
processing platform forecast full-year profit above
expectations. Post-it notes maker 3M Co MMM.N fell 2% after cutting its
full-year profit forecast and missing third-quarter revenue
estimates. Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , Intel Corp INTC.O and Visa Inc
V.N are among the high-profile companies slated to report
after markets close on Thursday.